A Watered-down Solution For Sox

Hawk Harrelson is never at a loss for words, but sometimes he misplaces the right one.

``Capitulated, acquiesced, what`s the word?`` Harrelson asked.

``Surrendered,`` I offered.

``Surrendered,`` Harrelson said. ``I`ve already surrendered to Tony. My idea (of two hitting and pitching coaches) just wasn`t working. If we had started the season his way and it didn`t work, he wouldn`t have surrendered. He`d have been fired.``

I don`t know a single bookie who would take that bet. Getting rid of Tony LaRussa is harder than shedding warts. Not that LaRussa is a wart. He`s the only one who comes out of this thing with any dignity. And maybe the only one in the entire Sox organization who knows what he`s doing.

Twice Harrelson has aimed at LaRussa and not been able to pull the trigger.

``We had lost six in a row,`` LaRussa said. ``If I had held out for three more losses, I might have gotten an extension.``

The way the Sox and Jerry Reinsdorf`s other Chicago sports enterprise, the Bulls, are being run, LaRussa was probably more accurate than he was funny.

No idea seems too screwy to get approval. When you think that Reinsdorf once had Rod Thorn, a solid basketball man, and Roland Hemond, a baseball lifer, to pull his oars for him, you have little sympathy for the chaos swirling around his franchises.

In Harrelson, he has one of the most engaging men in baseball, but one who has yet to prove that he has more mettle than mayonnaise. In his general manager of the Bulls, Jerry Krause, Reinsdorf has the perpetual last guy chosen for any team. Two very different amateurs. And in these he trusts.

Or maybe he doesn`t. Now he doesn`t like Krause`s coach, Stan Albeck. Maybe Albeck will be fired. Threats look like action. And make headlines.

Reinsdorf let Harrelson get his tongue lopped off in public. He bought Harrelson`s theories when he bought Harrelson and stood by them for, what, almost a month and a half?

Like any owner, Reinsdorf wants victories and profits. Winning cures more sins than medicine, and fills more seats.

Dissatisfaction with losing is understood and expected. Fixing the problem requires courage, vision and a decision every once in a while.

The decision on LaRussa was the right one. The explanation was shallow.

``Maybe I asked a man to do something he couldn`t,`` Harrelson said.

``Maybe I resisted too much,`` LaRussa said.

Harrelson, large enough to admit his mistakes, and LaRussa, grateful enough to agree, will try to fix the White Sox using LaRussa`s old tools and none of Harrelson`s new ones.

And so life continues in the happy house of Hawk and Tony, each the better for their recent differences and now solidly together again with the common good of the White Sox all that matters.

Sure.

How wonderful it would be to believe that somebody finally realized that LaRussa is a good manager, that some guilt was felt over the public flogging he took all week, that this truce between LaRussa and Harrelson will grow into a lasting peace and that the Sox will enjoy four-run wins forever.

But the truth is this: If Billy Martin had said yes to a one-year deal, he would be the Sox manager. If LaRussa can`t win with Harrelson`s appointees (batting coach Willie Horton and bullpen pitching coach Moe Drabowsky)

being sacrificed, LaRussa will be gone. And if Harrelson doesn`t get the Sox some better players, the whole thing is going to turn into navel lint anyhow. ``If you`re a player making $430,000 a year,`` Harrelson said, ``you ought to do something to earn it. Our guys haven`t earned their money. If they don`t play, I`ll get their rear ends out of here.``

Another threat? More crushed egos?

``I`m not worried about feelings being hurt,`` Harrelson said. ``If you`ve got guts enough to jump up in the big game, you`ve got to have guts enough to take it.

``The manager is 7-18 (before the series in Cleveland). I can`t worry about his feelings being hurt. I can`t worry about Ken Harrelson`s feelings being hurt. We`re bleeping 7-18. Somebody`s feelings ought to be hurt.``

So everybody shares a little pain. No blood, few scars. Both LaRussa and Harrelson are still employed, the White Sox are still in last place and a couple of coaches are in street clothes.

As solutions go, this one ranks right up there with new Coke. Or old alchemy.

Harrelson is shamed, LaRussa is tortured and things are just the way they were before Harrelson convinced Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn that he was the answer to questions they hadn`t even thought to ask.

What`s that tourist jingle? ``Come back to LaRussa, what`s old is what`s new . . .``